The Democrats focusing on the house rather than the Senate is logical;

The issue is that Kansas, Georgia, and South Carolina are places the Democrats won last time they held the house.

If they walk out of four special elections (with Utah not being a consideration) without a win, or more fairly without a win outside of the Georgia 6th (Hillary Clinton won Cobb county, without Tom Price that one should be a slam dunk) you have to at least consider re-thinking the approach in 2018.

The Democrats focusing on the house rather than the Senate is logical;

The issue is that Kansas, Georgia, and South Carolina are places the Democrats won last time they held the house.

If they walk out of four special elections (with Utah not being a consideration) without a win, or more fairly without a win outside of the Georgia 6th (Hillary Clinton won Cobb county, without Tom Price that one should be a slam dunk) you have to at least consider re-thinking the approach in 2018.

I didn't realise the Utah congressman was quitting rate away , but see there is a special election taking place in November . I doubt it be a realistic option for the democrats , Utah is pretty conservative , only a really right of centre democrat would have any hope there

realistically have a hard time believing there is 80 congressional districts at risk of flipping to the democrats next year ? that would give them a super majority unheard of in recent memory . I don't think the congressional republicans are that unpopular

a more realistic number might be closer to 30 and mostly the ones that seem to always flip back and forth

The Democrats focusing on the house rather than the Senate is logical;

The issue is that Kansas, Georgia, and South Carolina are places the Democrats won last time they held the house.

If they walk out of four special elections (with Utah not being a consideration) without a win, or more fairly without a win outside of the Georgia 6th (Hillary Clinton won Cobb county, without Tom Price that one should be a slam dunk) you have to at least consider re-thinking the approach in 2018.

Do you think they have a strategy? Not me -- I think this is an organizational unit within the Democrat Party that specializes in these kinds of elections, doing what it is expected to do. Wasn't the point, originally, that the People were rising up against Trump, and seeking absolution for the sin of electing him? It was that 'tide' that made these seats 'winnable', but it didn't materialize. Was that tide ever there, as a spontaneous reaction to Trump, or as a function of all the work the Democrats put into creating a showpiece victory?

There is no rising tide of disgust with Donald Trump. If anything, a lot of people are pleasantly surprised.

The Democrats are doubling down on a high risk strategy of making the association with Russia stick. But if Trump is exonerated, as seems likely, they will have to go back to the drawing board. I think it's a mistake. But, in the meantime, the heirs of the electoral part of the party machine are the Barney supporters and Elizabeth Warren! The party is adrift, rudderless, and pouring resources and credibility into a false narrative. It will fall into the hands of the loonie left if/when the Clinton wing gives up on the impeachment idea.

FYI, after 7 months of investigation, presently 100 FBI agents on that case, they have not turned up one bit of evidence that supports their theory that the Russians colluded with the Trump campaign. Not one, and yet there is a special investigator. And yet, with Hillary Clinton transparently guilty of security breaches and elliptical relationships with big money people around the world, seemingly selling 'influence' in return for donations to the Clinton Foundation, there is no special investigator. Despite that there is lots of evidence of violations, and none for Trump, she skates ...

Do you think they have a strategy? Not me -- I think this is an organizational unit within the Democrat Party that specializes in these kinds of elections, doing what it is expected to do. Wasn't the point, originally, that the People were rising up against Trump, and seeking absolution for the sin of electing him? It was that 'tide' that made these seats 'winnable', but it didn't materialize. Was that tide ever there, as a spontaneous reaction to Trump, or as a function of all the work the Democrats put into creating a showpiece victory?

I have to assume that somewhere in the DNC there is someone who is at least making the argument that perhaps there needs to be a different approach.

Montana should have woken someone up at the DNC;
It was a winnable seat in a district where you have twice elected a Democrat Senator, one who is up for re-election in 2018.

The fact that Georgia is even as close as it is has to at least signal some alarm bell?

The power in the Democrats lies with institutions like unions. Whoever is in charge, the Democrats are doubling down on their determination to prevent Trump from completing his term, if they can, or sabotaging him legislatively.

I think the Democrats are running on reflexes right now. These local elections are only important because they will help the narrative, which is that the electorate is abandoning Donald Trump. So they pour huge financial and journalistic resources into these fights trying to create and sustain that illusion.

(What have you heard about the 6th district in Georgia lately? It probably means that Ossoff is losing. That would be a page 12 item, but his win would be a headline story on the first page.)

But they have no real strategy. The party is falling out of the hands of the Clintons, it seems, and likely to go further left. Why? Not as a matter of strategy but as a matter of the internal power struggles within the party. Is moving further left really the route to power? Who needs more of the welfare state?

More than 140,000 ballots were cast in Georgia's special House race when early voting closed Friday, Politico reported, a signal of the intense local interest that has mounted around the contest in recent months.

By comparison, roughly 57,000 people voted early in the election's first round in April. The massive turnout of early voters, which includes more than 36,000 people who did not cast ballots in the first round, means that turnout for the Tuesday election will more than likely exceed the roughly 192,000 people who voted in April.

What's more, Politico reported, the turnout for the special election could easily surpass that of the 2014 midterm election.

The House race for Georgia's 6th congressional district has garnered significant attention, not just on the local level, but on the national stage, and is seen by many as an early referendum on President Trump and an indicator of Republicans' ability to hold key House seats in the 2018 midterms.

The matchup between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel has also quickly become the most expensive House race in U.S. history, with roughly $50 million spent.

The district has long been held by Republicans, most recently Tom Price, who left the House seat to become Trump's Health and Human Services secretary.

But Ossoff, a first-time candidate for public office, took more than 48 percent of the vote in April – less than two percent short of an outright win. That fact sent both parties scrambling to win over voters ahead of the June 20 election.

MARIETTA, Georgia — Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) stood in front of 50 Jon Ossoff volunteers at a campaign barbecue on Saturday and gave them a direct call to action.

"The vote is precious and sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have,” he said. "There are some in this country who still seek to deny some of us our right to vote. We can fight back by exercising that right."

Lewis’s somberness cut through the festive atmosphere at Ossoff’s get-out-the-vote rally, which featured pickup football, pulled-pork sandwiches, and a woman dancing in an inflatable dinosaur costume.

But Lewis is right that both sides are going to need every vote. On Tuesday, voters across Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District will choose between Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel, Georgia’s former secretary of state, in the most expensive House race in history and the most highly anticipated special election of the year.

Polling over the past three weeks suggests Ossoff has a narrow but potentially shrinking lead over Handel, whose big campaign event Sunday featured Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who held the Georgia Sixth seat before he was appointed to run HHS by Trump.

Five polls have been released in June, and four show Ossoff with a lead that’s somewhere between 7 points and 1 point, according to RealClearPolitics’ polling average. However, one of those polls showed the race in a dead heat, and a poll at the beginning of May showed Handel leading by 2 points.

Moreover, Ossoff’s lead appears to have diminished slightly. Though a poll released June 8 had Ossoff up by 7 points, the most recent one we have — from Fox 5 Atlanta — shows the Democrat’s lead being cut to a single point.

Ossoff came in first in the first round of voting this April in Georgia’s unusual “jungle primary” system, which featured more than a dozen other candidates. But he didn’t clear 50 percent of the vote in that race, setting up Tuesday’s runoff election, in which Republicans will have consolidated behind Handel.

Signs points to massive turnout in the race. More than half of the district’s voters have been contacted in person by Ossoff’s campaign, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The New York Times’s Nate Cohn says that 40,000 people who didn’t vote in the runoff this March have already cast a ballot this time around.

“It will all come down to turnout,” Ossoff told his supporters at his rally. “Let’s make sure we get out there and vote.”

Republican congressional candidate Karen Handel on Tuesday ripped Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff for the flood of outside donations that have pumped up his war chest and helped make Tuesday’s Georgia special election the most expensive House race in U.S. history.

Speaking on election morning with “Fox & Friends,” Handel voiced confidence about GOP turnout putting her over the top once ballots are counted.

“Republicans … are coming home to vote in this runoff,” she said.

And Handel, who plays up her experience as a state and local elected official, continued to cast her bid as a battle against outside forces trying to “buy” the 6th Congressional District seat.

“[Voters] are not interested in Hollywood and California coming in and buying this seat,” Handel said.

GEORGIA SPECIAL ELECTION: WHY IT MATTERS

The race, however, is very tight, according to recent polling.

Democrat Jon Ossoff poses for a picture with supporters outside of the East Roswell Library in Roswell, Ga., Tuesday, May 30, 2017. (AP)

More than $50 million has been spent on the two candidates in the special election runoff. In terms of individual donations, Ossoff has vastly outpaced Handel, with nearly $24 million to her $4.5 million – millions more was spent by outside groups.

Most of Ossoff’s money has come from out of state, especially from states like California and New York. An Atlanta Journal Constitution analysis showed just 3.5 percent of his donations between the end of March and May came from Georgia.

Handel has also benefited from outside spending, but it mostly hasn’t come to her campaign directly. Rather, groups like the Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, have spent millions on her behalf.

National Republicans' House campaign arm added $4.5 million, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce chipped in another seven figures.

All this spending reflects just how political important the Georgia race has become.

Another race, in South Carolina, also is being held Tuesday. Voters in the Palmetto State’s 5th Congressional District are going to the polls to determine who will succeed Mick Mulvaney – now the White House budget director -- in Congress. Millionaire developer Ralph Norman, the Republican, is favored over former Goldman Sachs tax adviser Archie Parnell, the Democrat.

Georgia’s race, by contrast, is locked up in the polls – and Democrats see it as a critical pickup opportunity after having lost two earlier special elections in Kansas and Montana. Democrats are eager to advance the narrative of voters delivering a referendum on President Trump’s policies but have yet to snag a House victory to support it.

Each candidate has heavy-hitters in their corner. Trump again took to Twitter Tuesday morning to make a closing sales pitch for Handel, writing:

“KAREN HANDEL FOR CONGRESS. She will fight for lower taxes, great healthcare strong security-a hard worker who will never give up! VOTE TODAY”

Handel used an election-eve rally to urge suburban Atlanta Republicans not to be wowed by the attention and money showered on this House special election.

"We cannot let up. There is too much at stake," Handel said.

Across town, an even more boisterous crowd dominated by millennials chanted "Flip the 6th! Flip the 6th!" as the 30-year-old Ossoff took the microphone.

A former congressional staffer making his first bid for public office, Ossoff has spent the monthslong campaign bouncing between excited Democrats eager to topple Trump and the independents and moderates who are unhappy with Washington yet wary about voting for a Democrat.

On the final night before voting, though, he played to the base.

"Politics does not have to be about fear and hate and deception and division," he said, avoiding mentioning Trump directly, as is his custom, but blistering "those cynics in Washington, D.C."

A gaggle of national and foreign media looked on at both rallies, a testament to how a single congressional seat has become a dominant story in U.S. politics.

The seat in play was held by Tom Price, now Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary. The seat has been represented by Republicans since 1979.

More than 140,000 voters have cast early ballots, suggesting total turnout will exceed a typical midterm election.

some early results are in for G6 , Ossoff is ahead of the republican by a very small margin , it looks like whoever wins it won't be by very much

don't really even understand why this race has become so important , its only 1 congressional district , its true its been republican for a while but Atlanta is becoming much more democrat than years past so its shouldn't be shocking a suburban Atlanta seat is becoming more competitive

to try and claim this 1 seat is reflective of the entire country seems to be a bit of a stretch

( the early results for SC5 also have the democrat ahead although I think its very early and that is expected to change )

Live Election Results: South Carolina’s Fifth Congressional District

By The New York Times LIVE 8:18:47 PM ET

Ralph Norman, a Republican and a former state representative, faces Archie Parnell, a Democrat and a wealthy former banker, in a special election for a U.S. House seat vacated by Mick Mulvaney, now director of the Office of Management and Budget. Polls close at 7 p.m. Eastern.

Mr. Norman is expected to have an advantage over Mr. Parnell. The race has not had the same national focus as special elections in Georgia and Montana.

The Fifth District was redrawn to heavily favor Republicans after the 2010 elections. Mr. Mulvaney won his three re-election campaigns easily.

After months of Democrats boasting that Georgia's special election in the 6th district would be a startling referendum on Trump's agenda, they just got served up another stunning defeat, as most networks have now called the race for Republican Karen Handel. In fact, rather than losing ground since Trump moved into the White House, Republicans actually performed better.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/.....l-election

Newt Gingrich said that the Democrats spent $50,000,000 on this one seat. The article says that Ossoff raised $21 million himself, much of it from out of state. The Democrats wanted it bad to put some feet under the claim that the public is turning against Trump.

South Carolina special election: Norman holds House seat for Republicans

Published June 20, 2017
Fox News

Republican candidate for U.S. Congress Ralph Norman, center, speaks with Gladys Jackson, left, as Norman's wife, Elaine, right, looks on at a polling place in South Carolina's 5th Congressional District in Rock Hill, S.C.

Republican candidate for U.S. Congress Ralph Norman, center, speaks with Gladys Jackson, left, as Norman's wife, Elaine, right, looks on at a polling place in South Carolina's 5th Congressional District in Rock Hill, S.C. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Republican Ralph Norman held off Democrat Archie Parnell in a closer-than-expected race Tuesday to fill the House seat vacated by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.

With 99 percent of the precincts in South Carolina's 5th District reporting, Norman led Parnell by 51 percent to 48 percent — a margin of just over 2,900 votes out of more than 86,000 ballots cast.

The South Carolina race garnered far less national attention than Tuesday's other special election — Georgia's 6th District, the most expensive U.S. House contest to date. However, national surrogates found time to stump for both candidates, as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint campaigned with Norman. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez made the rounds for Parnell, a former Goldman Sachs tax adviser.

As they have in other special election contests across the country this year, Democrats recruited a field of candidates to make a play for the GOP-held seat. But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee plunked only $275,000 into the South Carolina race, compared with a $5 million investment in the Georgia special election.

Norman, a millionaire real estate developer and state lawmaker, ran a campaign aligning himself with President Donald Trump, who won the district by more than 18 percentage points this past November. He emerged as the top vote-getter from a seven-way GOP primary and defeated state lawmaker Tommy Pope by just more than 200 votes in a runoff.

"Trump is still very popular in our area," Norman said during a recent candidate forum. "His first big decision in putting Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court excited the people we're coming into contact with. He proved his mettle."

The 5th District, which stretches north from Columbia toward the suburbs of Charlotte, N.C., had been in Democratic hands for more than 100 years until Mulvaney defeated longtime incumbent John Spratt in 2010. He'd held the seat until February, when he resigned to join Trump's administration.

David L. O'Neal, a retired Army officer and paratrooper from Tega Cay, backed Norman in the primary and said the Republican earned his general election vote in part because of his stance on veterans' issues.

"As a retired military officer, I feel Ralph is strongest on military issues, wanting a strong defense," O'Neal said Tuesday. "And I know he is 100 percent with the veterans on their issues."

Georgia special election: GOP boasts Democrats are '0-5' in special House races

By Samuel Chamberlain Published June 21, 2017
Fox News

GOP Handel defeats Democrat Ossoff

Now Playing
Republican Karen Handel wins Georgia House seat

Republican Karen Handel's projected victory over political upstart Jon Ossoff in Tuesday's Georgia special election was immediately cast by the GOP as a devastating blow for Democrats.

As Handel delivered her victory speech in Atlanta, the National Republican Congressional Committee blasted out a memo crowing that Democrats "marshalled [sic] their resources and went all-in Georgia ... and they failed."

"After promising a revamped strategy that would deliver them a majority, House Democrats are no closer to that goal today than they were at the beginning of the new year," said the memo, which claimed that Democrats had gone "0-5 in specials [sic] elections."

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., echoed the NRCC when he said, "Democrats from coast to coast threw everything they had at this race, and Karen would not be defeated," in his statement congratulating Handel on her victory.

The NRCC memo referred to races involving Republican-held seats that represented a chance at a Democratic pickup. The NRCC also counted the Georgia contest as two separate races, since Ossoff failed to garner enough support in the initial balloting to avoid Tuesday's runoff.

Earlier this year, Republican House candidates held GOP seats in Kansas and Montana. In addition to Handel's victory Tuesday, Republican Ralph Norman won a closer-than-expected race in South Carolina to succeed Mick Mulvaney, who resigned from Congress this past February to become Trump's Office of Management and Budget director.

Democrats did hold one of their own seats in a California special election earlier this month, as Jimmy Gomez secured the seat vacated by Xavier Becerra, who resigned to become the state's attorney general.

After Tuesday night's results, Republicans hold 241 seats in the House of Representatives compared to 194 for the Democrats. Democrats must defend their current districts and win 24 GOP-held seats to regain a majority next November.

Republican Karen Handel on Tuesday night defeated rival Jon Ossoff in Georgia’s record-spending, special-election congressional race, keeping yet another House seat in GOP hands and denying Democrats a chance to deliver a rebuke to President Trump.

With all precincts reporting, Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, led Ossoff 52 percent to 48 percent -- a margin of nearly 11,000 votes out of more than 250,000 ballots cast.

The race smashed fundraising records for a House contest -- with both campaigns and outside groups combining to spend a record $50 million.

Ossoff’s defeat was another setback for Democrats hoping to capitalize on Trump’s low approval ratings to win a long-standing Republican seat.

It was the party’s fourth straight defeat this year in attempts to win a Republican seat and take the momentum into the 2018 midterms. They now must win 24 GOP House seats to retake control of the chamber next year.

“This race was going to require all hands on deck, and that’s what we had,” Handel said at her victory party. “Tonight’s victory is for you. It’s for every citizen in the 6th (Congressional) District.”

To be sure, the contest was close since Handel and Ossoff were the top finishers in April's first balloting, which sent them to Tuesday’s runoff.

Related Image

Republican candidate for 6th congressional district Karen Handel speaks at a campaign event where she was joined by House Speaker Paul Ryan in Dunwoody, Ga., Monday, May 15, 2017. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
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Republican candidate for 6th congressional district Karen Handel speaks at a campaign event where she was joined by House Speaker Paul Ryan in Dunwoody, Ga., Monday, May 15, 2017. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Ossoff lead by nearly 5 percentage points as recently as June 12, before the race deadlocked in the final days, according to the RealClearPolitics.com polls average.

The 30-year-old Ossoff, whose campaign was hurt by revelations that he didn’t live in the suburban Atlanta district, thanked his campaign team and voters in a short concession speech.

“Thank you for the most extraordinary process that I have ever been a part of,” Ossoff said. “The fight goes on. Hope is still alive.”

The House seat has been occupied by Republicans since 1979. GOP Rep. Tom Price gave up the seat in February to become Health and Human Services secretary.

President Trump didn’t campaign in Georgia for Handel. But he attacked Ossoff on Twitter for living outside the district and warned voters that he would increase taxes and be soft on national security.

Handel supporters chanted “Trump, Trump, Trump” at her victory party. And the president tweeted his own message of congratulations.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., also congratulated Handel, saying, “Karen is all business. I’ve campaigned with her, and I know how eager she is to get to work. I’m excited to have her as a partner in the House.”

Ossoff tried to thread the needle in the conservative-leaning Georgia district by vowing to cut taxes for small businesses, while championing equal rights for women and minorities, which earned him the support of civil rights icon and Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis.

Handel touted her experience as a state and local elected official and argued that outside forces were trying to buy a win.

Voters “are not interested in Hollywood and California coming in and buying this seat,” she said Tuesday morning on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis showed just 3.5 percent of Ossoff’s donations between the end of March and May came from Georgia.

Still, Handel also benefited from outside spending, though most didn’t go directly to her campaign.

Groups like the Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee backed by Ryan, have spent millions on her behalf.

Related Image

FILE - In this June 6, 2017 file photo, candidates in Georgia's 6th Congressional District race Republican Karen Handel, left, and Democrat Jon Ossoff prepare to debate in Atlanta. Handel and Ossoff are making their last push this weekend before voters in Georgias 6th Congressional District cast ballots Tuesday, June 20, to replace Tom Price in Washington, a contest seen as an early political test for the Trump administration. (Branden Camp/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
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Also on Tuesday, Republicans held onto the House seat in South Carolina that was vacated in February by Mick Mulvaney so he could become the White House budget director. Millionaire developer Ralph Norman, the Republican, defeated former Goldman Sachs tax adviser Archie Parnell, the Democrat, in a closer-than-expected contest.

The other two special-election races this year in which Democrats failed to win a GOP House seat were in Kansas and Montana.

In Kansas, Republicans held onto the seat of Mike Pompeo, now the CIA director, and they kept the Montana seat of Ryan Zinke, who became Trump’s secretary of Interior.

Democrats have one last outside chance to win a GOP House seat, Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s in a conservative Utah. The special election is on August 15. Democrats won one special House election this year, holding onto the California seat vacated by Xavier Becerra.

While Republicans have held the Georgia seat since former House Speaker Newt Gingrich took it from Democrats nearly four decades ago, the district does not appear as conservative as in years past.

Trump won the district over Democrat Hillary Clinton last year by just 1.5 percent, compared to 2008 when Republican presidential nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain won by 18.9 percent.

The race attracted national attention and record money, but Georgia voters also took a big interest in the outcome.

More than 40,000 people voted early, including 36,000 who didn't vote in the April contest.

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